Getting to know the neighbourhood. (Private)

Kira's own ears flatten as she looks toward the wall.

"Yeah, that's an understatement," she answers. She goes silent then.

Still, no time like tomorrow! Resolute, the pony rights her neck, and stands her ground. "I'll do it, Kira. Let's bump on it." She hold out her right hoof to her new 'employee'.

Kira looked back to Sybin. She waw changing the subject for her. How considerate, Kira thought. With a brief smirk, she leaned foraard and met the pony's hoof with her glove-clad fist, and with a considerable amount of force. It wouldn't be enough to do any damage, but it might hurt Sybin for a brief moment.

Shaking her hoof, the pony is impressed by the force Kira's frontal paw possesses. 'And to think that hind legs are often at least 3 times as strong.' Still, she was hoping to ease Kira into opening up about her father. Maybe they could do so tonight?^^

Thinking about night, Sybin looks outside to see what time it is here.

The two windows built into the longest wall were still covered by deep red curtains, which did very well at blocking light. Sybin would have to walk over and move one to get a good look.

Kira noticed Sybin shaking her hoof, and quickly realized what she'd done. "Oops, sorry 'bout that. I always forget to take these off before I do stuff like that."

Kira removed her brown, grease-stained gloves as she spoke, and set them on the table before going back to sorting her ingredients.

((Curtains? Curses; foiled again.))

Trotting over to the curtains, the mare noses behind the curtains to look outside. It's already late in the afternoon, and almost evening. Outside, she sees people putting their tools and work away, and a big bonfire in the middle of the town. Would they have story tellers here as well?

Feeling her stomach ache, Sybin ponders whether to take a ration bar, or try and beg some food from Kira. In the end, she goes over to her host, and asks. "Could I trouble you for a meal tonight? I would understand if food was scarce here, so don't bother on my account."

"I just went on a hunt yesterday, so I got plenty," Kira said, once again flashing Sybin a brief smile. "I don't mind sharing, not with friends, anyway."

Kira quickly finished sorting the last few ingredients from her sack, then closed the crate and moved it back under the table, then swiveled her chair and stood up.

"Oh, are you a vegetarian or anything?"

At first, the ponie's ears perked up at the promise of food, and a broad smile revealed her flat teeth, which then grimaced into a sheepish smile when she hears Kira's next sentence.

"That is correct," answers the pony. "We can not digest fat, as in, not at all. We do eat eggs, or very lean meat."

Kira suddenly clapped her hands together, an uncharacteristically broad smile forming on her face.

"Aww, yeah, it's time to test a new invention, then!" she exclaimed. She headed across the room, leaping clear over one of the piles of scrap behind the couch, and heads into the kitchen room.

"What are you waiting for? Get in here!" her voice calls excitedly from the other room.

Kira's excitement must be contagious, as Sybin really did find herself anticipating what Kira had cooked up.

"Coming!" She almost gallops to the kitchen, mindful not to stumble and break a leg.

As she entered the room, Sybin would be able to see a rather bulky contraption set upon the island countertop in the middle of the well-lit and strangely well-put-together room. The walls, though still clearly solid steel, were painted a clean white colour, and the floor was white and black checkered tiles, though there were many boot prints that were clearly not made recently.

The contraption featured a set of two pincer-like appendages and several of what appeared to be lenses on the ends of articulated arms, and a control set in front of which Kira stood, ostensibly in the process of powering it up. Gripping a pair of joysticks, she moved the claws around in circular motions and straight lines, making sure they were functioning properly.

Fascinated, Sybin comes closer to get a better look at the device. "So, what is this invention for? It's in the kitchen so I doubt it's a scanner, and bet it's a cooking utensil. Does it knead dough?" Though, what would those lenses be for?

"Well...If everything goes as planned...I should be able to use this to identify concentrations of fat in a hunk of meat, and remove them," Kira explained.

She flicked some of the switches on her control panel, two off, then two on, giving her control of the arms of two lenses, and repeated the movement tests she'd done with the pincers.

"I honestly don't like the stuff, either. It's disgusting to think I was eating leftover...things from the food what I'm eating ate. It's like feces, almost."

"I never thought I would ever see such a lean machine," quips the pony. "But this would indeed be a great invention. This could revolutionize herbivore diets! So many foods that were poisonous, might now be available."

((Okay, I admit I did not expect this. Nyaha, your mind is a wonderful place XD))

Kira gave a short chuckle at Sybin's pun. It wasn't great, but it was worth acknowledging at the very least.

After making sure those two lenses worked properly, she once again flicked switches off and on, then ran through the tests with the final two limbs of the machine.

"The only problem would be manufacturing. Besides the fact that most of my inventions don't get noticed by people with the resources to help me build and distribute more of them due to the fact that none of them live here, this thing is a lot more complex than it looks. You'll see why in a moment."

((I'm happy to hear you think so! ^_^ I like to think of myself as an unstoppable force of creativity, at least in fiction. I point you to the links in my signature, and maybe this, too.))

"Aw, that's too bad, Kira. I guess a jungle just isn't a place for fine machinery. Heck, neither is the tundra where I live. We ponies only used simple tools and magic until we managed to combine them." She looks over the process, trying to take in what the inventor is doing. "Then again, I guess you know all about Alchemy."

She looks at all the moving parts, and her mind wanders off to her homeland, but she pushes any feelings of homesickness away, for now. "We solved the 'too many moving parts' problem by having our tools grown from a blueprint matrix placed in crystal. Maybe that would work here as well?"

((Oh, that city is a nice idea, including the natural camouflage. The blinding sand could be solved by having the city under a dome, which would help with all the cold that these winds would produce. It also reminds me of another moving city. People had build on top of an ancient automaton that wanders the desert in a set pattern.))

(To be honest, I think my idea was subconsciously inspired by Netslum Tartarga from .hack//G.U. vol. 3, which is an ancient city built on a living ship shaped like a giant sea turtle.))

"Growing tools?" Kira said, raising an eyebrow incredulously.

She soon finished her tests, then turned and stepped over to a large, metal cube, not as big as the one they were in, but large enough to come up to Kira's waist. She opened the top of it, causing mist to pour out of it as the warm air in the room made contact with the cold air inside the freezer.

Sybin watched with interest while Kira worked her magic.

"Yeah, growing as in, asking plants and minerals to take on the shape that you want. It takes a while, and the instructions must be very detailed, but after a few weeks we get tools more intrinsic than our finest smiths ever made."

Kira scoffed as she lifted a big slab of frozen meat from the freezer, and set it down on the counter next to it. She closed the freezer and wiped the sweat off her brow. That would have been much easier with her gloves on, she thought to herself.

"Must be nice to have plants that listen to you," Kira said after turning ti face Sybin. "Most of ours just want to eat us."

Sybin rolled this around in her head. "Have you ever tried talking to them? Most respond well to sugar and other bribes."

When Kira handles the frozen meat, only one thought goes through her mind. 'How is she not getting a frost burn? Are her hands insulated enough?"

(I didn't think about that! Ignore it! XD Seriously, though, I've never had to worry about frost burn or whatever when taking meat out of my freezer. o.o Is that actually a thing?)

Kira made a short chuckle in response. She wasn't sure if the pony was joking or just naiive. She then looked to the slab of frosty meat on the counter.

"Uh...Yeah, probably should have let this thaw..." she thought aloud. On top of letting it thaw, she'd also have to cook it before the machine would work. Eventually, she turned to Sybin, looking off to the side sheepishly. "So...how hungry are you?"